More proof Government Motors is run by idiots. GM is already selling Volts for a loss so lets lower the price another $5K…
Economics 101 - Demand is inelastic. Lowering the price only means you are going to sell the car to someone who was already interested in it for less money. This maneuver will not bring new buyers to the table.
I don’t think demand is completely inelastic and a few people will buy it now ‘for the hell of it…’. I do agree that those new customers were on the fence and a few thou off is enough to sway them.
That said, there will not be enough to save this venture. Nor does it need saving. It should be shelved until costs come down.
A year or so ago you could lease a Volt for $199 or something stupid no-profit-low like that.
I seriously considered one but passed due to the charging station requirements (I rent).
$199 is 1/2 of what I pay for gas monthly.
The one thing that is a hinderance for electric vehicles is that you need a dedicated power socket to charge the damn thing. I cannot buy an EV car because I live in an apartment that doesn’t have enclosed, dedicated parking for my vehicle, and my vehicle only. A regular gas or gas/electric hybrid doesn’t have this problem.
By comparison, a Ford Focus, for ~$20k, can drive to a gas station and refill its energy requirements in about 5 minutes, most of the time trying to figure out how to work the credit card island thing. An EV costs about twice that much after taxes, has much more stringent energy and storage requirements, and is still a relatively new technology whereby only the richer portion of the population (read: not poverty) can own them.
An EV needs half an hour to several hours to get the same energy requirements and the energy can’t be carried easily by hand (gas can) to a car that has no energy on the side of the road a mile away.
EV’s are a good idea, but the requirements for owning one like owning/renting a house with a garage, put the vehicle out of reach of a lot of people.
Why anyone still buys a damn thing from GM is beyond me.
-brickboy240